10 Things I Like at UFC 259
Given how stacked this weekend's card is, keeping it at 10 things was a challenge
Saturday’s card is so good.
It’s one of those cards that is so flush with compelling matchups that the first fight of the night deserves to be one the the forthcoming 10 things, but instead will get packaged into a final catch-all “thing” with a handful of other fights and fighters because everything that comes after it gets increasingly better, increasingly more intriguing, increasingly more impactful all the way up the ladder until we reach the “Champion vs. Champion” main event for the light heavyweight title.
This card is so stacked that I’m forgoing the two weekly staples — Fighter I Can’t Quit and I Want to Know More About — because while there are athletes on this card that certainly fit those categories (Jake Matthews and Kyler Phillips, respectively), there are just too many other talking points that have to be addressed to focus specifically on those two guys.
I’ll talk about them below, no question, but they’re getting less time than they would have if they were fighting a week earlier or a week later, which honestly stinks, but here we are.
There is a lot to discuss, so let’s get to it.
Bounce Back Blachowicz
Jan Blachowicz was 2-4 inside the Octagon through his first six starts, with the low point coming when he suffered a majority decision loss to Patrick Cummins at UFC 210.
Since then, the 38-year-old from Cieszyn, Poland is 8-1, having risen to the top of the light heavyweight division on the strength of a four-fight winning streak that includes hellacious knockout victories over Luke Rockhold, Corey Anderson, and Dominick Reyes, whom he beat to claim the vacant title back in September.
Maybe it’s because of the good luck derived from touching — and now carrying around — the rope of a hanged man he found while walking his dog several years ago, as detailed by Steven Marrocco of MMA Fighting, or the mental blockages he’s unlocked by going all-in on the teachings of Tony Robbins, as he discussed with Shaheen Al-Shatti in his tremendous profile of the man who will be the last to walk to the Octagon on Saturday night earlier this week at The Athletic.
Whatever it is, it’s clearly working because even as recently as a year ago, the notion of Blachowicz standing atop the 205-pound weight class was unfathomable, and now he’s the undisputed champion, set to headline the biggest pay-per-view of the year, with the chance to be the first man to defeat Israel Adesanya tied to his first title defence.
This is an awesome story that should remain awesome regardless of what transpires on Saturday night because a lot of people would have folded up shop and gone home if there were in Blachowicz’s position and few could have put together the overall run of success he’s enjoyed to reach this point.
The only way this could be any better is if he walked out to “Tennis Ball” by Hello Peril on Saturday night.
Israel Adesanya’s Approach
What Israel Adesanya has done through nine UFC appearances is straight-up stupid and I mean that in the most respectful, awestruck way possible.
The reigning middleweight champ is 9-0 with wins over Rob Wilkinson, Marvin Vettori, Brad Tavares, Derek Brunson, Anderson Silva, Kelvin Gastelum, Robert Whittaker, Yoel Romero, and Paulo Costa, which includes an interim title victory, unifying the belts, and two successful title defences, and he did all that in under three years.
For his 10th appearance, he’s stepping up a division to challenge for the light heavyweight title against a seasoned pro with tremendous power, a deft submission game, and a wealth of experience.
When Adesanya says in his “Year of the Fighter” episode on FightPass (preview above) that he wants to be remembered as the guy that took on everyone, he clearly fucking means it because you can already make an argument that the dude has fought one the toughest schedules in UFC history and he’s only 10 fights deep.
You don’t have to like his style or his personality, you don’t have to be picking him to beat Blachowicz or believe he’s as good as plenty of others believe him to be, myself included, but you have to — HAVE TO — acknowledge that what he’s done is incredible; you have to give him that.
And if he pushes that run to 10 straight while picking up a second title, in a second division? We’re going to have to have some serious conversations about where he falls in the pantheon of all-time greats.
Amanda Nunes’ Greatness
Just as I don’t think people can truly appreciate how difficult doing what Adesanya has done to this point truly is, I also don’t think most people have a full appreciation for just how goddamn impressive what Amanda Nunes has done and is still currently doing really is.
“The Lioness” is the only fighter in UFC history to successfully defend two titles in two different weight classes simultaneously, which is something none of the other three double champions in the company’s history even attempted. She’s beaten everyone that has held championship gold in the bantamweight and featherweight divisions, including being up 2-0 on former featherweight champ Germaine de Randamie, and has two wins over reigning flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko as well.
She’s 8-0 in championship fights and has six consecutive successful title defences across two divisions, five at bantamweight and one at featherweight, as she heads into this weekend’s clash with Megan Anderson.
Folks want to affix caveats to her accomplishments because she’s a woman or nitpick the resumes of some of the athletes she’s beaten, but you’d be hard-pressed to find many better winning streaks on either side of the gender divide than the run she’s amassed over the last five years:
Shevchenko > Tate > Rousey > Shevchenko > Pennington > Cyborg > Holm > de Randamie > Spencer
What makes it all the most awesome is that Nunes has no intention of slowing down, no interest in taking her foot off the gas and focusing on something else; she wants to keep breaking records, keep defending her titles, plural, and remain a champion for as long as possible.
As I said when I wrote about Nunes at the end of last year, she’s one of the greatest fighters of all time, full stop.
We need to say that more often.
Petr Yan’s Big Test
D’you know what’s great about MMA? Any time you have a fighter that people think “hasn’t been tested,” there comes a time when that man or woman gets tested and we find out a thing or two about them that we didn’t know.
It’s not often that a fighter rises to the top of their respective division while carrying that tag, but some feel that is the case with bantamweight titleholder Petr Yan, who defends his title for the first time this weekend against undisputed No. 1 contender Aljamain Sterling in what is the Russian champion’s biggest test to date.
I get it — he essentially put himself in position to challenge for the title by beating Urijah Faber and won the belt by earning a stoppage win over Jose Aldo, who had lost his previous two fights, and in a division as flush with contenders and quality competitors as bantamweight, you’d kind of like to see the champion navigate a little bit tougher than that in order to claim the title.
So this weekend is his big test and I’m absolutely psyched to see how it plays out because I think Yan is one of those dudes that is otherworldly skilled and has that “rise to the occasion” gene where he gets better as the fight goes on and the bigger the stakes, the better the performance. I also think that he doesn’t get enough credit for his wins over John Dodson and Jimmie Rivera prior to the Faber-Aldo title two-step because those guys are criminally underrated and under-appreciated, but like I said — I get the hesitation.
And Sterling is the most difficult test you could put in front of him right now — an outstanding grappler with continually improving striking, the athleticism and intelligence to blend them together smoothly, and a whole grip of confidence, especially given how his fight with Cory Sandhagen went and what “The Sandman” has done since.
Yan may have risen to the top of the bantamweight division “without being tested,” but eventually, those tests always come around, and this weekend, we’ll see whether the Russian titleholder is going to pass or fail.
Opportunity Finally Knocks for Aljamain Sterling
I love the way Aljamain Sterling’s career has played out because it’s honestly the ideal way for a super-talented, highly-touted fighter to matriculate up the rankings and reach a championship opportunity.
He started hot, wining eight straight to land in the UFC, then won his first four appearances inside the Octagon to move to 12-0. He got a little cocky, got a little ahead of himself, and then lost to Bryan Caraway, which was followed up by a split decision loss to Raphael Assuncao. He rebounded with a pair of solid, but unspectacular wins, then caught a knee to the dome while trying to change levels for a takedown against Marlon Moraes and hit the canvas with his limbs all rigid, stuck in place like he was dabbing on someone.
Since then, the man with a thousand nicknames — Aljo, Funkmaster, The Human Anaconda, The Human Jansport, etc. — has rattled off five straight victories, facing and beating increasingly better competitor at each step to reach this weekend’s title bout with Yan at the best possible time.
We’re always in such a hurry for young fighters with a ton of hype and potential to get hustled into the deep end of the talent pool and rush them into contention, but the vast majority of fighters need to deal with some adversity and have to struggle a little before they’re truly ready to reach that elite level, if they’re even capable of getting there in the first place.
It’s taken time, but I would wager that if you asked Sterling — and I’m sure many people have; I just haven’t seen the stories yet — he’ll tell you that looking back, everything happened the way it needed to happen in order for him to have the best opportunity to leave the Octagon with the bantamweight title around his waist on Saturday night.
Weekly Lightweight Awesomeness
Another week, another outstanding lightweight fight.
This week, the combatants are Islam Makhachev and Drew Dober, who had been scheduled to fight several years ago, but collide on Saturday at a time when both are on an upward trajectory and in the best form of their respective careers.
Makhachev is one of those guys that has the potential to become a breakout star whenever he starts getting some big name, high profile assignments. Right now, despite a six-fight winning streak, he remains stuck in the shadow of his long-time friend and training partner Khabib Nurmagomedov, which is understandable, but unfair, because winning six straight in the 155-pound ranks is a daunting task and Makhachev deserves more attention for what he’s accomplished.
In addition to drawing praise for Nurmagomedov, the 29-year-old standout from Dagestan has earned rave reviews from Daniel Cormier as well. Now, you could argue that “DC” is a little biased because of the AKA connection, but Makhachev’s performances thus far — he’s 18-1 overall — mesh with what Cormier is saying.
Conversely, the 32-year-old Dober is a bit of a late bloomer in that he’s just really started stringing together quality results in the last couple years. He enters Saturday’s contest on a three-fight winning streak, having earned consecutive stoppage wins over Polo Reyes, Nasrat Haqparast, and Alexander Hernandez, while also winning six of his last seven and eight of his last 10 dating back to the start of 2016.
Dober was always competitive and a tough out, but since hooking up with the Elevation Fight Team, the Nebraska native has found a rhythm and approach inside the Octagon that seems to maximize his natural athleticism and striking abilities, and forced people to re-think what his ceiling is in the lightweight division. A victory on Saturday will force even more people to reconsider how far they think he can go.
The wild thing, as always with these fights, is that neither of these guys is currently stationed inside the Top 10 and win isn’t guaranteed to get them there either. It should — should — create an opportunity to face a Top 10 opponent next time out, depending on timelines and potential matchups, and that again just speaks to how fucking deep and talented and competitive things are in the lightweight division.
Sometimes we get so fixated on contenders that we miss terrific talents, great fights, and cool stories featuring athletes that haven’t hit that level yet, and this feels like one of those times. I’m glad they’re getting a main card spot and I hope that people come away from this fight as impressed with these two as I have been for the last couple years because they’re both really good and this should be an outstanding fight.
Contender Entrance Exam for Aleksandar Rakic
Aleksandar Rakic currently sits at No. 4 in the light heavyweight rankings and is one round on one scorecard away from being 6-0 in the UFC and riding a 14-fight winning streak into his matchup with Thiago Santos in the opening bout of Saturday night’s main card.
As it stands, the 29-year-old Austrian is 13-2 and coming off a tactical effort against Anthony Smith last summer, where he wrestled the former title challenger for 15 minutes to get back into the win column and continue his march towards contention. Despite quality wins over Devin Clark and Jimi Manuwa (and getting hosed by the judges in his fight with Volkan Oezdemir), there aren’t a lot of people that look at Rakic and think, “That guy is a title threat” at this moment, but that can change with a win on Saturday night.
While Santos enters the fight on a two-fight skid, he’s established as a contender after pushing Jon Jones to the limit at UFC 239, where he spent the final couple rounds fighting on a jacked up knee that required surgery. “Marreta” is a menacing physical presence and the kind of battle-tested, nasty veteran an upstart like Rakic has to get through in order to really be taken seriously as a threat, even in the wide open light heavyweight division.
I think Rakic has the talent and potential to be a legitimate contender going forward, but I also still need to see him win a fight like this, against a guy like Santos, who isn’t going to allow himself to get controlled on the canvas or in the clinch for 15 minutes, before I will say he’s genuinely ready to face the remaining names ahead of him in the rankings.
Crossroads Moments for Cruz, Benavidez
There’s something kind of poignant to me about Dominick Cruz and Joseph Benavidez fighting together on the prelims this weekend, both at similar positions in their careers.
For quite some time, Cruz was one of only two men to beat Benavidez, having bested the former Team Alpha Male fighter twice during their shared days in the WEC. Until the flyweight division opened up in the UFC, the two were set to be forever linked, and while that has since changed, the fact that they’re both heading into battle on Saturday night in dire need of a victory feels like a call-back to those earlier days when they were the top two fighters in the bantamweight division.
Cruz, who takes on Casey Kenney in the final preliminary card fight of the evening, hasn’t won a fight since June 4, 2016 when he out-pointed Urijah Faber in their unnecessary trilogy bout at UFC 199. He’s only fought twice since then — at UFC 207 in Las Vegas when Cody Garbrandt styled on him and snatched up the bantamweight title, and last spring at UFC 249, when he got stopped by Henry Cejudo.
Early stoppage or not, Cruz didn’t look like the guy ruled the division for long stretches in that fight, and while that is perfectly understandable giving the myriad injuries and extended layoffs that have highlighted his UFC career, the now 35-year-old still sees himself as a world-class talent when there is very little to support his argument at this point.
Beating Kenney won’t necessarily convince anyone that Cruz is still a contender — and please miss me with all the “See! Still a contender! He’s not washed up yet!” nonsense if he does win this weekend — but it will show that he’s still got a little something left in the tank, which is the first hurdle Cruz needs to clear if he wants to prove he can still hang with the very best in the division he once ruled.
As for Benavidez, he entered 2020 poised to claim the title that long escaped his grasps, but came out of it with consecutive stoppage losses to Deiveson Figueiredo, a permanent place in the Brazilian champion’s highlight reel, and the realization that he’s probably never going to challenge for UFC gold again.
That last part is some legitimate, world-class, hard-to-swallow actualization and the fact that Joe B. just talked about it like it was no big thing earlier this week with the media illustrates why he’s so beloved within the MMA community, however he too is facing a “can he still hang?” situation this weekend when he takes on Askar Askarov in the second bout on the televised prelims.
This is where Benavidez has thrived over the years: just below the champion, knocking off and knocking out every hopeful that wanted to punch their ticket to a title shot by using him as a stepping stone.
Ian McCall, Jussier Formiga, Tim Elliott, Dustin Ortiz, Henry Cejudo, Alex Perez, Ortiz again, Formiga again — they all got turned back.
The 28-year-old Askarov is 12-0-1 and coming in off back-to-back wins over Elliott and Alexandre Pantoja. He eked out a split draw with Brandon Moreno in his promotional debut that was a little undeserved, but also showed where the former Deaflympics gold medalist fits in the division. He’s really good and a dangerous matchup for Benavidez, who had never lost consecutive fights before last year and is now staring down the barrel of a three-fight slide if things don’t go his way on Saturday.
Reading Chris Herring’s excellent piece on the decline of aging stars Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook at Sports Illustrated earlier this week, the final sentence in the story, which made repeated sharp references to Father Time coming for all athletes at one point or another, made me think of both Cruz and Benavidez as soon as I read it:
“The only question is whether he’ll escort the 31-year-old out, or give him a chance to exit more gracefully, on his own terms without making a scene.”
He was talking about Griffin, but it applies to both Cruz and Benavidez this weekend as well.
Their best days are clearly behind them. Now it’s just a question of how their final chapters will be written.
Tremendous Bantamweight Fight Alert
Tucked in between the crucial fights for Cruz and Benavidez is an absolute banger of a bantamweight fight between Song Yadong and Kyler Phillips.
Now, folks seem to want to be a little salty towards Song because he got the nod in a close fight against fan favorite Chito Vera last time out and earned a majority draw opposite Cody Stamann in the fight before that, which people thought was a janky decision as well, and I get it — no one likes seeing people get things they don’t believe they’ve earned.
What I will say, however, is that if you set aside the results and just look at the efforts in general, it’s impossible not to be excited about what the Chinese bantamweight brings to the table.
Here’s a 23-year-old that is already 16-4-1 (1 NC) in his career, 5-0-1 in the UFC, and has the athleticism, skill, and personality to be a potential breakout star much like Zhang Weili in the next couple years; he’s that good.
I know we chuckle at Urijah Faber for always putting his guys over, but let’s be honest: Faber has given his public stamp of approval to four fighters that I can remember of the years — Chad Mendes, Joseph Benavidez, TJ Dillashaw, and Cody Garbrandt. The first two were perennial contenders that fought for UFC gold on multiple occasions, and the second two each won the bantamweight title. If “The California Kid” believes Song has championship potential, I’m not going to dismiss it as simply putting another member of Team Alpha Male over.
The part that really excites me about this matchup, however, is that Phillips is finally getting a chance to showcase how skilled he is as well, because make no mistake about it: Kyler Phillips is an outstanding prospect in his own right and someone to pay very close attention to in the bantamweight division.
Just 25, he’s already 8-1 with victories in each of his first two UFC appearances, and he comes with the John Crouch seal of approval. Like Faber, the head man at The MMA Lab doesn’t heap praise on undeserving talents, and he’s always been high on Phillips, who got a win on the first season of the Contender Series, but instead of getting a contract, got offered a place on The Ultimate Fighter, where he dropped a majority decision to eventual winner Brad Katona in the opening round.
Phillips is one of those guys that had solid amateur success, came up working with a great group, and is very good everywhere, which makes him a really interesting fighter to watch both this weekend and going forward.
I said it last week and I’ll say it again now: bantamweight is currently running parallel with featherweight as the best division in the UFC, slightly ahead of lightweight, and fights like this illustrate that for me.
Don’t be surprised if this one opens some eyes on Saturday night.
Everything and Everyone Else
As I said off the top, this card is so stacked that fights and fighters I would usually devote an entire section to are being lumped together in this catch-all subhead to close out the piece, but it’s the best way to give them all a shout out while sticking to my “10 Things” structure.
So here’s what else you need to know about this weekend’s final seven preliminary card fights:
Rogerio Bontorin and Kai Kara France are both on the fringes of contention in the flyweight division, but need that big win that truly stamps them as contenders, which is why their clash on Saturday is crucial for each man.
I’m super-curious to see what Tim Elliott brings to the table now that he’s made the permanent move back to Missouri to work with James Krause again. The skill has always been there, but the focus has been lacking lately, and I think if anyone can get that dialled back in for the former title challenger, it’s Krause.
Kennedy Nzechukwu has always been an interesting prospect to me because he has a tremendous frame and raw potential, plus he works with the elite crew at Fortis MMA. He takes on hyped newcomer Carlos Ulberg, the latest member of the City Kickboxing team to join the UFC roster, on Saturday in a bout where most people are focused on Ulberg.
Sean Brady is 13-0 overall and coming off his best UFC performance to date last summer. Now he gets a step up in competition against the criminally underrated Jake Matthews, who is 17-4 overall, 10-4 in the UFC, and 6-1 since shifting to welterweight, which includes a dominant victory over Li Jingliang that no one seems to remember or give him enough credit for considering how much attention “The Leech” often receives. This one should be really instructional when it comes to clarifying where each man fits in the hierarchy of emerging welterweights.
Livinha Souza has been a bit of a disappointment thus far in her UFC career, which is weird to say about a fighter that is 3-1 inside the Octagon, but I don’t think many would disagree with me. The former Invicta FC champ takes on Amanda Lemos in what feels like a “you’ve got to prove something to me” fight for both women, with Souza shouldering greater pressure due to the potential she flashed earlier in her career.
Uros Medic dropped one of the best lines in Contender Series history following his first-round stoppage win over Mikey Gonzalez, remarking, “That’s why they call me ‘The Doctor’ — I make them all see the nurse” while the cageside medical personal came to check on his felled opponent. He might be my favorite prospect to come off the Contender Series last season and his fight with fellow Contender Series grad Aalon Cruz this weekend is a solid initial test for the unbeaten newcomer.
Mario Bautista is 8-1 and has earned back-to-back wins (and bonuses) since losing his short-notice debut to Cory Sandhagen. Trevin Jones rallied and finished Timur Valiev last year on short notice before the bout was ruled a No Contest because “5Star” popped for weed in his post-fight drug screening. They’re facing each other in the opening bout of the night, which tells you how stacked this goddamn card is because this fight is orders of magnitude better than any other curtain-jerker this year.
Enjoy the fights, folks!